In Stryi district, a 49-year-old man has been notified of suspicion of an attempted theft from a local church and an attempted arson of a fellow villager’s house. This is reported according to the findings of the investigation by the Stryi District Prosecutor’s Office.
According to the investigation, on the night of 28 July this year, a resident of Stryi district cut off the power supply to part of his village in order to steal property from the local church. Using a chainsaw, the man cut out the lock on the church’s entrance door and went inside, but was unable to complete the crime because an audible alarm powered by a backup supply was triggered, after which he fled.
Less than half an hour later, according to the investigation, the same man, on the same street, approached the house of a fellow villager with whom he had hostile relations. He poured a flammable liquid he had brought with him into a ventilation opening in the foundations and set it alight. There was a powerful flash under the floor, which blew the interior doors off their hinges.
A tragedy was averted thanks to the vigilance of the people who were in the house: they promptly extinguished the fire and called the police. The suspect was swiftly detained under Article 208 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine.
Under the procedural guidance of the Stryi District Prosecutor’s Office, the man has been notified of suspicion of a completed attempted theft involving unlawful entry into premises, and a completed attempted intentional destruction of another person’s property by arson (Part 3 of Article 15 – Part 4 of Article 185, Part 2 of Article 15 – Part 2 of Article 194 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). A decision is currently being taken on whether to remand him in custody as a preventive measure, and the pre-trial investigation is being conducted by investigators of the Investigation Department of the Stryi District Police Department of the Main Directorate of the National Police in Lviv region.
Pursuant to Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is presumed innocent of committing a crime and may not be subjected to criminal punishment until his or her guilt has been proven in accordance with the law and established by a guilty verdict of a court.